United States President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday (December 8), in an interview with NBC News, said that he will go ahead with his deportation plans for all illegal immigrants after he enters the Oval Office and if the immigrants are part of a family, then the entire family will be deported.
However, he also assured that he would make it easier for people from other countries to come to the United States, a step which can benefit Indians who enter the US legally.
Speaking about his plans of deporting everyone who is living illegally in the United States, Trump said, “I think you have to do it. You have to have, rules, regulations, laws. They came in illegally. People that have been treated very unfairly are the people that have been online for 10 years to come into the country. We are going to make it very easy for people to come in terms of they have to pass the test. They have to be able to tell you what the Statue of Liberty is. They have to tell you a little bit about our country. They have to love our country.”
“They can’t come out of prisons. We don’t want people that are in for murder. So, we had 11,000 and 13,000 different estimates, 13,099 murderers released into our country over the last three years. They’re walking down the streets. They’re walking next to you and your family. They’re very dangerous. You don’t want those people in this country,” he added.
“I’m saying this. We have to get the criminals out of our country. We have to get people that were taken out of mental institutions and put them back into their mental institution, no matter what country it is,” said the president-elect.
Don’t want to break families: Trump on deportation of immigrants
When asked what would happen if some members of a family were staying in the US illegally and others were not, Trump said, “I don’t want to be breaking up families. So the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back.”
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“We don’t have to separate families. We’ll send the whole family very humanely, back to the country where they came. It depends on the family. If they come here illegally but their family is here legally, then the family has a choice. The person that came in illegally can go out, or they can all go out together,” he added.
Trump further expressed his certainty about repealing birthright citizenship. “We have to end it,” he said while calling it “ridiculous”, and added, “We’re the only country that has it, you know.”
(With inputs from agencies)